Best Sesame Street Albums

[BobThePizzaBoy]

I'm surprised we've never had a thread like this before, but here's something to think about: what do you consider the very best Sesame Street albums? It can be based on anything. Nostalgia, great music, great characters on the album, but what are your Abbey Road or St. Pepper's of Sesame albums? I'll start with two of my favorites.

Sesame Road - I actually had this on cassette as a kid but never listened to it ever. Why? "The Word is No," the one Sesame song I was petrified of as a youngster was on this very cassette, so I was too scared to ever want to listen to it. I re-discovered it in MP3 form when I was older and realized what an awesome album it is. It does severely lack the main Muppets but the songs on here more than make up for it. The rock parodies are what makes this album, it's like a Cerf tribute! Not much else I can say but this one is one of the great ones, and thankfully a lot longer than most Sesame albums these days!

Platinum All-Time Favorites - I haven't listened to this one in a while but also had it in cassette form as a kid. But I know the songs well enough to know that this album is definitely a great celebration of the show's then-26 years on the air. I know there's some Elmo on there but all these songs are key essential songs in Sesame history. Whether or not you actually need this album, your mileage may vary, but it's definitely a great way to have all these songs on one disc.

Bert & Ernie Sing-Along - Well, I find this one a tad annoying right now only because my iTunes seems to love playing tracks from this (and the Doozer Knitting Song) when in shuffle mode but all things considered, it represents the classic era Sesame to a tee. I'm pretty sure just about every major classic-era character gets to sing a line in this. And Bert asking for a towel plus the Count singing his song about the Bats in the Belfry crack me up every time.

 

[minor muppetz]

Some of my favorites:

Jim Henson: A Sesame Street Celebration
A tribute album to Jim Henson, featuring many tracks with either Ernie or Kermit, but every track includes a Jim Henson character. Considering it's a tribute to Henson, my biggest surprise is that it doesn't contain Do De Rubber Duck (featuring Henson's three main SST characters), and there are a few other things I'd have liked included, but overall it's great. It has quite a few tracks that I remember hearing for the first time (and of which I spent many years wondering the visuals... in the case of the Kermit songs there were quite a few that I was sure I knew but by then didn't recall any lyrics or titles... in most cases I was right in my assumptions, but I incorrectly thought that either Tadpole or This Frog was My Pollywog Ways).

Born to Add
I'd like to say that this is as good as Sesame Road, but I've never heard Sesame Road. My copy is of the 1990s reissue. Like Sesame Road (and the VHS releases Count It Higher and Rock & Roll), very few of the tracks contain major characters (it is interesting that Jim Henson's vocals are nowhere to be heard on this album). At the time I had forgotten what Chrissy and the Alphabeats were called, and figured they were on this album, but in addition to that group it also had other bands with lead singers voiced by Christopher Cerf, bands I was unfamiliar with (it didn't help that Cerf used the same voice for every character). At the time I first got it the one song I was surprised wasn't included (which would have helped me on what Chrissy and the Alphabeats were called... the two numbers with them on this album were ones I hadn't recalled seeing at the time) was You're Alive. I was also confused that I Wish I Had a Friend to Play with Me had female back-up vocals.

Songs from the Street
A very good 3-disc set. Though it does have too many celebrity performances, and hardly any of the new-to-audio tracks were non-celebrity, but seeing as I only have a few Sesame Street albums I didn't get too many double/tripple dips here. But still, it's a wonder they still didn't include such classic previously unreleased songs as Imagine That or I Love My Elbows. It also could have used a few more Count songs (what is it with these sets intended for adult collectors having only a shortage of Count material?), and maybe another Bert and Ernie song in additon to But I Like You (Dance Myself to Sleep, La La La, and Things That I Remember would have been great choices). And isntead of the album version of Bein' Green it would have been great to have included Lena Horne's version.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Yeah, definitely agree with those three.

I honestly think Songs from the Street is perfectly fine despite the over-abundance of celebrity tracks. I think part of the point was to mix together the key Sesame songs, many of which were already on CD, with celebrity tracks. It's really a big way to show the significance the show has had past and present. If I had the choice between Songs from the Street or Platinum All-Time Favorites, I'd choose the former (exactly why I said "your mileage may vary" for the latter).

 

[minor muppetz]

I honestly think Songs from the Street is perfectly fine despite the over-abundance of celebrity tracks. I think part of the point was to mix together the key Sesame songs, many of which were already on CD, with celebrity tracks. It's really a big way to show the significance the show has had past and present. If I had the choice between Songs from the Street or Platinum All-Time Favorites, I'd choose the former (exactly why I said "your mileage may vary" for the latter).

It seems that and "What's the Name of That Song?", both released around the same time to celebrate the 35th anniversary, were full of new-to-CD/DVD appearances by celebrities, but for the most part had previously-released non-celebrity appearances. Though Songs From The Street had a bigger balance of A-, B-, and C-list (and perhaps lower) songs (as it had more songs and discs), while What's the Name of That Song? seemed to comprise mostly of B-list and lower segments (there are exceptions, like Doin' the Pigeon). I don't really mind anniversary releases including random or rare segments, as long as they haven't been released commercially before.

Part of me wants to also list "The Best of Ernie" and "A Celebration of Me, Grover" among the best albums, but I'm not sure. Both are good if you're fans of the characters, and the Grover one is a lot better. Though character spotlight albums (and videos) seem to have a balance of what's truly best and what might not be the best of the characters. The Best of Ernie has a few tracks that may have truly been "best" back when it was released (1983), but if released later I'm sure it would have had tracks like Imagine That, Put Down the Duckie, and Do De Rubber Duck as opposed to Up Goes the Castle, Do You Like Me? The People in Your Neighborhood, and Kin Folk.

Of course, those character spotlight albums from 1974 seem to have some odd choices, but I'd cut those some slack as at the time most of the main characters only had a small number of their own songs (especially broadcast songs). Though Ernie's Hits and Bert's Blockbusters did have some great non-music sketches as audio tracks.

 

[Oscarfan]

I like the albums from the early 80's (like "The Gang's All Here!" and "Surprise") that are mostly made up of songs from the seasons recent to it.

I love the "Sesame Street Monsters!" album. It's got some of my favorite songs on there.

 

[dwmckim]

Well i could gush on and on about why Bert & Ernie Sing-Along is the coolest SST album of all time, but i already took care of that here:

http://muppetfreak.blogstream.com/v1/pid/381426.html

 

[CensoredAlso]

Well I have to give props to Sesame Street Christmas Sing-Along. It wasn't Christmas in my house as a kid until I put that album on. What was especially enjoyable was the conversations between the characters in between the songs (or sometimes in between the lyrics, lol).

Big Bird: Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say...

Cookie: Rudolph, with your nose so bright, hey how bout you gimme a COOKIE tonight? !

Grover:......That was very good, Cookie....heh....

I was so happy when I got to meet Bob McGrath a few years ago and he agreed to sign my album. And all the parents behind me with their little kids were quite moved as well, lol.

 

[Son of Enik]

I still have to name the very first Sesame Street album my favorite, I must have listened to that record (yes, I said record) everyday until it wouldn't play anymore.
The Songs from the Street set is wonderful, my wife got it for me one Christmas and it's one of the best gifts I have ever received! I also loved Bob Sings as a kid...would love to get my hands on that one again.